


Precious

by FirebirdsDaughter



Series: Game Demos - Works of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid [7]
Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Gen, Headcanon, Pretty crappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 23:24:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11611116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FirebirdsDaughter/pseuds/FirebirdsDaughter
Summary: On his own and feeling betrayed, Graphite doesn't expect to live through the night.But, sometimes, the people who care the most for you are the ones you least expect.





	Precious

**Author's Note:**

> So, since things aren't going well for my favourite Dragon Bugster, I thought I'd write something for him (plus Saki, because... reasons).  
> And, uh, yes. That was supposed to be an OOO reference.

     He’d found her not long after Cronus had appeared, some time after Brave switched sides, slipping about in the shadows of battles, a shimmer of white and pearl.  
  
     Or, should he say, she found him.  
  
     They’d just evaded Cronus, barely, and were trying to recover. Parad had wandered away when he’d snarled that he was fine, allowing him to collapse against the wall of the abandoned parking lot they’d made a home in at the time. He’d resolved a while ago to keep the worser of his injuries from Parad, not wanting to fuel the other Bugster’s panic. So he tried to nurse them alone, grimacing whenever he bent the wrong way.  
  
     From nowhere, a pair of gentle, gloved hands covered his hands, with a touch like clouds.  
  
     His first instinct was to jerk away, but the soft hold was surprisingly strong. One hand still clutching his, she pressed her other to his chest. Comfort spread from her palm, seeping into his extremities—he could feel his wounds healing and the pain easing. Once he was fully recovered, she pulled away from his chest, but continued to hold his hands, clasping both of hers over them.  
  
     “Better?”  
  
     He knew that voice, warm and kindly. He’d heard it multiple times in his own mind.  
  
     “… You.” He was too stunned to try and yank his hands away again, merely staring at her, rather slack-jawed. She was clothed in white, like he had seen from the corner of his eye. There was a silver-white, fur lined hood pulled up over now equally snowy hair. The cloak only fell to her elbows, fastened at the neck over the sweetheart neckline of an ivory dress that was also adorned with jewels and embroidery, with a glimmering waterfall skirt, pooling on the floor behind similarly coloured boots with gem-inset heels and silver leggings. Though an ornate opera mask covered half her face, beaded and embellished, he knew who she was, even though the form telegraphed a separate identity.  
  
     In a showering of glittering white pixel, the mask disappeared from her face.  
  
     “Surprise!” Momose Saki said, without any venom whatsoever—her memories in his head implied she was incapable of real menace. “Bet you thought you’d seen the last of me!” She giggled, squeezing his hands one more time before letting them go, setting her white-gloved palms against her own knees, smiling sweetly. “Nice to finally meet you. Proper-like, I mean.”  
  
     He stared at her for a bit longer before struggling to his feet and slipping past her as she stood as well, getting the space of the room on his side. She didn’t pursue, just brushed off her skirt, watching him curiously. After a bit of desperate seeking, he found his voice. “You… How are you…?”  
  
     “Like Sayuri?”  
  
     He nodded.  
  
     Sayuri was a recurring character for Genm Corp. games, the healer, dressed all in white with a pearl-gilded wand, a poofy, asymmetrical skirt, high heels. There wasn’t a Bugster who’d spent any time in the Game World who **didn’t** know her—and right then, Saki was a perfect picture; though the original Sayuri, the Lily Fairy, never removed her mask in game.  
  
      But that was it, too. The original Sayuri was dead, the first to fall when the Game World came crashing down around their ears.  
  
     But here was the woman, the dead one, whose memories were **in his head** because **he’d** killed her, bouncing on her heels like a happy child.  
  
     She waited, until some change of expression in his face prompted her to continue. “Simply put, I ran away.”  
  
     “Ran… Away…?”  
  
     “Yup.” For a moment, her face grew serious. “I didn’t like what was happening, so when I got the chance to do something, I…” She mimed grabbing with her hand. “… I took it. And now I’m like this!” The last part was happier, and she twirled around, her dress flouncing out about her. “I mean, I guess I’m a Bugster now, but it’s not so bad when you do it this way."  
  
     Unbidden, his eyes shot to the ground when she spoke, and he only heard her take a step forward, heels clicking on the cement.  
  
     “I, uh… Not that I’m trying to say you’re bad.”  
  
     Again, his head came up to stare at her. “… Are you out of your mind?” She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head. He just snarled angrily at her. “Whatever, just… Go away!” It was the most effective dismissal he’d ever made, but she considered his face for a moment, then disappeared in a haze of glitter.  
  
     He’d assumed he wouldn’t see her again. He was wrong.  
  
     Instead, she became a constant fixture. He didn’t tell Parad about her, not wanting it to seem like his resolve was wavering.  
  
     Not wanting to give away that he was starting to enjoy her company.  
  
     She didn’t make demands of him, didn’t expect things. Instead, she mostly talked; about how she hadn’t been able to speak to Brave because Cronus was always with him, or something else was happening. How she would sneak around CR, healing when people weren’t looking. How she was responsible for the majority of reports to the hospital about patients, she didn’t get hungry anymore, but she still missed cake. He’d begun frightening himself when he’d actually brought her some of the dessert he’d stolen from their brief visit to CR, and had had to resist the urge to smile when she was delighted by it.  
  
     There were few times that she didn’t come to see him. The first had been a short period of days just after he’d injected himself with Gemedus’ data. She’d found him writing in a corner, having forced Parad to go away once again. She’d called his name and tried to touch his shoulder, only to jerk back like she’d been shocked when he snarled at her, and alien fury flooding through him.  
  
     He’d regretted it instantly when he saw her expression; hands clasped to her face, eyes wide.  
  
     For the first time, she looked terrified of him.  
  
     She’d turned and fled instantly, and he hadn’t seen her for several days afterward, until she finally shyly approached him and apologised for running away.  
  
     The second time was after the incident with Snipe.  
  
     Even after he was alone, when Parad had gone off to lick his own wounds, she didn’t appear. With the rush of battle gone, not to mention, once again, the foreign hostility that seemed to have come with the outside data, he felt calmer—and he had a very good idea about why she wasn’t coming.  
  
     The day after, he’d waited for her again, and the day after that. On the fourth day, he got desperate enough to talk to air.  
  
     “I know what you’re mad about, alright!” He yelled at the water, standing alone on the dock of the boathouse he and Parad had holed up in. “And… And I’m sorry, okay! I’m sorry!” After a silence long enough for him to wonder if he was talking to himself, he heard the click of heels behind him and turned.  
  
     There she was, mask off, biting her lip, white gloved hands clutched together at the ornamented waist of her dress. Her eyes weren’t angry, exactly, just… Disappointed. They stared at each other for a while.  
  
     “… I’m sorry.” He said again, and felt a little more like he meant it, looking into her sad eyes and unwavering gaze.  
  
     Eventually, she stepped forward, and gently wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing a hand against the back of his head.  
  
     “I forgive you.”  
  
     She said nothing else.

* * *

 

     The days after Brave returned to the Rider fold were the opposite. She told him she didn’t really have a purpose to be there anymore—in a tone that sounded like she felt she’d failed her mission—and that if she talked to her boyfriend now, it would just make things worse.  
  
      So, instead, she came and sat with him when he was alone, trying to teach him human games, sometimes just sharing the silence, sometimes filling it with chatter. The more he saw her, the stranger it was, but also more… Pleasant?  
  
     “I always wanted a brother.” She said abruptly, halfway through trying to make him play ‘cat’s cradle’ (which didn’t involve sleeping or cats and made no sense).  
  
     “What?”  
  
     “A brother.” She retied the string in her fingers. “Told my mother I wanted one for Christmas. She died before they could have another child, though.” When he continued to be bewildered, she gave up and started braiding the twine instead. “… You’re kind of like having a brother. Maybe a siamese twin?”  
  
     “That makes no sense.”  
  
     “Maybe. But you understand me. You’ve got part of my head in there.” Her velvet soft touch tapped his temple, and he looked at her again. She rarely talked about how he had her memories. “I just feel like you understand me more than anyone else, is all.”  
  
     “I don’t think so.”  
  
     She laughed musically. “You would.”

* * *

     When Ultimas hadn’t returned to the cave after leaving for CR, he’d abandoned the spot as soon as he felt strong enough to stand.  
  
     Afterwards, he began to wish he’d stayed there.  
  
     He’d been in denial for the first hour after Parad had left, but eventually, he couldn’t deny the truth anymore.  
  
     The last person he’d thought was his ally had abandoned him.  
  
     With an angry roar, he began lashing out at the old garage they had been hiding out in, beating on walls and pillars until his fists hurt and his vision was tunnelling. After everything they’d gone through together, Genm, Cronus, Gemedus’ data, the encounter with Ultimas… He’d thought, assumed, that they had something permanent. Something that couldn’t be betrayed.  
  
     He’d just been wrong again, and now he was alone.  
  
     Well. Almost.  
  
     “Graphite?” Saki/Sayuri’s voice was tentative and slow, making him turn. He had to blink a few times to clear his eyes, but there she was, peering worriedly at him. “What happened?” He faced her and opened his mouth, but didn’t get anything out because he tried to take a step forward and instead fell into her arms, forcing her to prop him up. He glanced at her face, which had become somber. “Tell me.” She said, firmly.  
  
     Some hours later, they were sitting on the roof, feet dangling, as she held his hands in hers, repairing them slowly.  
“I see.” She said. “So that’s it.”  
  
     “Ironic, I suppose,” He grunted sourly, “That in the end the only person I could trust was you.”  
  
     Yes, ironic. Momose Saki, the woman he’d killed. The woman who had only ever treated him with respect, despite having every reason to hate him.  
  
     “I don’t think that’s true.”  
  
     “It is. I thought I knew Parad—turns out I don’t.” Though she’d finished healing him, she didn’t release his hand. “Now I’m… I’m on my own. You’re not in the fighting; I have to try and change…” He broke off. He wasn’t going to repeat Parad, not now.  
  
     “Why? Why do you have to keep fighting?”  
  
     “Because that’s what we do.”  
  
     “That’s not a good reason.”  
  
     He yanked his legs up, standing and pacing away from her. “Because it’s all **I** can do!”  
  
     “Why?” There was nothing demanding about the question. Where others expected mindless cooperation, she just wanted to understand.  
  
     Trying to collect himself, he continued. “I’m not an ally character, like you are now. I’m an enemy, a final boss.” He turned back to her. “I **can’t** live with humans; for me, ‘playing’ is death! Over and over and…”  
  
     She stood up, coming to stand beside him and laying a hand on his back again, rubbing his shoulder. “… I understand. But there has to be a way to work this out.”  
  
     He jerked his head to speak again, but then another bout of pain and glitching ran through him, and he lurched forward, clutching his chest and gritting his teeth. Gemedus’ effects were getting worse faster than he’d anticipated.  
  
     The only things that stopped him from hitting the ground were her arms, that grabbed him around the waist tightly as her voice turned panicked. “Graphite? Graphite! What’s wrong?”  
  
     He took several breaths to try and calm himself. “It’s nothing.”  
  
     “I don’t believe you.” Saki snapped, grabbing him by the shoulders and stepping in front of him, forcing him to look at her. “It’s been getting worse, isn’t it? His influence is growing.” When he looked at her face, her eyes were wide and scared, tears brimming, her hands tightening on his shoulder blades. “I don’t want him to consume you. **I don’t want you to die**.” The tears were spilling over, and he had to stare at her in shock for a moment.  
  
     One of the people in the world who had real, true reason to hate him, and here she was crying for him.  
  
     “Let me help.” She added quickly, releasing a shoulder to lay a hand on his chest again to try and heal him, but he took advantage of it to pull out of her grip, stepping away.  
  
     “Why would you try to save me when you can’t even save yourself!” It came out a little harsher than he’d meant—maybe that was good. If he scared her off now, she wouldn’t try to follow him. “Did you think I haven’t figured it out? Sayuri died when the Game World was ransacked! Even with you fused with her, there’s no way… Whatever this is you have, will last! Eventually, Sayuri’s data with run out and disappear, and when it does, you’ll go with it!” He’d stunned her, and she didn’t interrupt. After some more deep breaths, he continued in a softer tone. “That’s why you didn’t go to see Brave, wasn’t it? Because you didn’t want him to watch you die three times.” Her eyes shot to the ground. There was silence between them for a while. He turned away, inhaling deeply and squaring his shoulders. “… I don’t want your pity. I don’t need it. I don’t know why you even bothered with me.”  
  
     Eventually, he heard her take a step forward. “You… You’re right.” She said slowly. “But… I bothered because I believe… Because **all** life is precious, no matter **how** it came to be! Like when there’s a moth caught in a spider’s web. Most people want to free the moth, but… Doing that would starve the spider. Just because I died so you could exist doesn’t make your life any less valid! You didn’t ask for this any more than I did.”  
  
     More silence followed her speech. Staring at the skyline, Graphite came to a decision.  
  
     “… I’ll finish things with your boyfriend and Snipe. I owe you that much.” He heard her gasp loudly behind him. He turned his head just enough to see her outline against the setting sun. “After that, I’ll be none of your concern anymore.” Snapping his head straight again, he swallowed whatever emotion was rising in his throat forcibly, clenching his fists. “… This may sound pretty terrible, but…” Unbidden, his voice quavered, just a little. “… You… Meeting you, I guess. I suppose it kind of worked out for me, in the end.”  
  
     “Graphite!” She started forward, trying to grab his arm, but he disappeared into data before she could, flickering away.  
She stood there with her arm extended for a long time, tears spilling even more. Finally, she reached up to wipe her eyes.  
  
     “… It worked out for me, too, you idiot. And I’m not about to let you die on my watch.”  
  
     In a flutter of silver and white glitter, she followed after him.


End file.
